The Vacation Diaries: Part Deux

Well, once the pre-wedding festivities kicked in Thursday, we got pretty busy so were not as good at taking pictures. Thursday evening, Caroline went with the boys to eat barbecue while the girls went to Charleston Cooks! for a cooking class. We made a delicious salad with fried shoestring sweet potatoes on top, seared flounder with succotash and grit cakes, and parfaits for dessert. Here is my mom, my sister Kimberly, and her two friends from A&M, Lauren and Rachel, as we were sitting down to dinner.

As I said in my previous entry, I finally found a way to cook grits that I like: Grit cakes! The cooks showed us how to make grits as usual, then stir in chopped asparagus and parmesan cheese. You spread it out in a pan and chill to firm it up a little, then use a round biscuit cutter to cut out circles of the grits. Then you fry them up in a skillet with hot oil. Oh so good. Of course, it's hard to not like anything fried, this is the South after all. We even fried up the scraps left over after we cut out the grit cakes so that we could eat every bit. The grit cakes were used as part of the main course: first the grit cake, then succotash on top (peas, corn, tomatoes, etc. with a viniagrette), then seared flounder on top of that, then a lovely butter sauce. It was so good and a nice way for all the girls to get to know each other.

Afterwards it was the long-awaited Charleston Idol competition a/k/a karaoke contest! It was my first time to karaoke, believe it or not, and I was pumped. I love to sing so I really got into it. And I probably hogged the microphone too much but hey, you snooze you lose. I don't think I ever did a solo though -- "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benetar was supposed to be my big number, but Kimberly wanted to sing it with me, so she did and it was more fun that way anyway. Rachel from A&M sang several Dixie Chicks songs with me while the Brits looked on blankly. I guess you don't get much Dixie Chicks in Tokyo or London or wherever they all came from. But you have to agree that "Goodbye Earl" is a rockin' karaoke song. And the best of all: I won the trophy! I don't know who picked the winner, but who cares, I won! I'll have to take a picture of it to show off. It has an engraved plaque on the front and everything.

The next day was the wedding rehearsal, a beautiful sunny day. We spent some time in the park beforehand at Spoleto, Charleston's annual arts festival. But Caroline was more impressed with throwing pennies in the fountain than with any of the paintings or music. Here we are leaving for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner:

After a week filled with gorgeous late spring, sunny days, we woke up Saturday to rain. It rained all day. I'm talking wind-lashing, incessent, dreary rain, apparently extending from Tropical Storm Barry. My sister was so disappointed because the wedding was supposed to be outdoors on the lawn of a beautiful historic home in downtown Charleston. Well, we just moved the wedding inside and had a wonderful time anyway. My uncle Ronald performed the ceremony -- his first wedding -- and it was a beautiful service. We had a lovely dinner and then dancing outside (under a tent). I hope that any disappointment my sister & her husband have about the weather and the change in plans fades over time because everything really was lovely and all of us there were just happy to be there with them on their big day!

We had a babysitter for Caroline on-site who tried to get her to sleep, but she would have none of it. She loves to dance! She tore up the dance floor at the reception. Here she is dancing with bridesmaid Heidi, Kim's friend from Tokyo. Check out Heidi's shoes. Caroline was wearing them before the wedding and threw a major fit when we had to take them off her so we could get her dressed in her flower girl dress. I mean, she was mad for a couple of hours about it! Whenever she sees a picture of Heidi, even now, a week later, she always points to her and says "Heidi's shoes." What can I say, the girl loves her shoes.

I was really excited to be at a half-English wedding because I was hoping to see some hats. I was informed that hats are not proper attire for evening weddings -- but little feather things called "fascinators" are. I had to get a picture of the groom's mother wearing her fascinator in her hair. (She is also wearing a navy bow in her hair -- the feathers are above the bow.) I love it!

And here are more dancing pictures. Caroline looks serious in these, but she was not in a bad mood (I guess she had forgotten about Heidi's shoes by this time). She just is serious about her dancing!
And Uncle James and Aunt Kimmy are married! Congratulations y'all!